Pressure-sensitive tapes are virtually ubiquitous in the home and workplace. In one of its simplest configuration, a pressure-sensitive tape includes a backing layer and an adhesive layer attached to the backing layer. According to the Pressure-Sensitive Tape Council, pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are known to possess properties including the following: (1) aggressive and permanent tack, (2) adherence with no more than finger pressure, (3) sufficient ability to hold onto an adherend, and (4) sufficient cohesive strength to be removed cleanly from the adherend. Materials that have been found to function well as PSAs include polymers designed and formulated to exhibit the requisite viscoelastic properties resulting in a desired balance of tack, peel adhesion, and shear holding power. PSAs are characterized by being normally tacky at room temperature (e.g., 20° C.). Materials that are merely sticky or adhere to a surface do not constitute a PSA; the term PSA encompasses materials with additional viscoelastic properties.
These requirements for pressure-sensitive adhesives are assessed generally by means of tests which are designed to individually measure tack, adhesion (peel strength), and cohesion (shear holding power), as noted by A. V. Pocius in Adhesion and Adhesives Technology: An Introduction, 2nd Ed., Hanser Gardner Publication, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2002. These measurements taken together constitute the balance of properties often used to characterize a PSA.
One important class of pressure-sensitive adhesives include those with a (meth)acrylate copolymer as the elastomeric material. The (meth)acrylate copolymers can be used alone or can be combined with tackifiers to provide the desired adhesive properties. Tackifiers can be added, for example, to alter the rheology and compliance of the adhesive composition, to change the surface energy of the adhesive composition, and to alter the melt processing characteristics of the adhesive composition.